The Achilles Track Club New York and Dick Traum

As a young able bodied man in May 1965 he was rammed by a car at a gasoline station.

The Achilles Track Club New York – a special kind of club – the brainchild of Dick Traum
In an unusual way, his misfortune became a triumph for humanity.

The Achilles Track Club is a special kind of club. One must read the history of its development in order to understand what this club represents and what role models it offers for the sport, the athletes, and its fellow men.  It should also serve as a role model for many other organisations.

The author participated in the New York City Marathon in 1984 with a broken arm resting in a sling. The situation seemed somewhat scurrile when about 90 minutes after the start I suddenly passed runners with their legs in casts — I started to question my own running abilities. These runners belonged to the Achilles Track Club, however, and they were allowed to start a few hours before the rest of the field.

Read about the development and history of the Achilles Track Club in the following report by Toby Tanser — and maybe some day you too will be asked to offer your services as a volunteer.

Horst Milde

 

 

The Achilles Track is the brainchild of Dick Traum. Traum himself is an athlete, and an above the knee amputee. As a young able bodied man in May 1965 he was rammed by a car at a gasoline station.

Lying in the hospital he remembered an old quote, “Be ashamed to die, until you have won some victory for humanity.” (Horace Mann). It was to prove to be an accident that today has changed many peoples live for the better. In a anomalous way his misfortune was a triumph for the human race.

A New York City businessman of notable success Traum hit mid life and realized he did not need a bigger apartment, any more money, or a fancier car. He needed something else, something intangible with the material world. An element was missing from his life.

A self admitting type A- personality

The death of a business colleague in 1975 made Traum take a long cold look at himself; what he saw was an out of shape pudgy man. Upon the advice of a friend he enrolled on a fitness class at the NYC YMCA. Within a year Traum, a self admitting type A- personality, was on the Y’s sports and fitness committee. This was 1976 and the American Frank Shorter, having won the Munich Gold and Montreal Silver Olympic Marathon medals had the USA explode into a running phenomenon boom with the Big Apple at the helm of the explosion.

Soon after completing his first ever race, a 5-miler in 72:49, Dick got the infectious marathon bug. In 1976 Traum became the first ever amputee to complete a marathon, he did so running over-distance as the course marshals were not yet at their posts and Traum ran at least an extra mile off course before doubling back, making his 7:24 absolutely exceptional. Outstanding also was the interest the media took in the achievement. Jim Fixx, who is credited with writing the first ever mega-selling running book, The complete book of running, ran with Traum to experience the occurrence, and a year later an 18-year saw a picture of Traum in Runner’s World that would rock the world.

Terry Fox - run across Canada

Terry Fox was a young Canadian athlete when he started to develop knee pains. Tests revealed bone cancer, and amputation was the only resort to save Fox‘s teenage life. Fox decided to he wanted to run across Canada to bring attention to bone cancer, and raise money for fighting the disease. Fox completed 3,000 of the 5,000-miles before dying, yet his memory lives on.

A series of memorial races in Canada were scheduled for the fall of 1981 and Dick Traum was invited as a spokesman and dignitary for the events. They could not have called on a better man; after a brief TV appeal by the New Yorker $17,000 was pledged. Suddenly Disabled running was headline news. Today, nearly a quarter of a century later, more than $360 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name.

A center where runners could come

At this time The New York Road Runners Club was going through major changes; large in part to Traum, a Board of Directors Member back in those days. Traum had found a building he wished the then virtually insolvent club to purchase just off Fifth Avenue as a headquarters. The club was surviving in a tiny office room of the local YMCA, juggling jobs amongst a mountain of boxes and it did not take a visionary to see this was not the way forward for a growing organization. A locale would provide a venue, a center where runners could come and congregate with the purpose of running and talking about the sport.

With the objectives of promoting a varied program of running classes in the city Traum pondered with the notion of hosting an Eight-week course for disabled athletes.

Fred Lebow

Fred Lebow gave the go ahead for advertising flyers to be printed, and Traum sent 1,100 letters to medically associated people within the NYRR telling them to send along any persons interested. A local coach, and famed running book author, Bob Glover, volunteered to train the group. Lebow said, “If three people show, it will be a success.”

Two souls showed up to the classes on November 10th 1982, “It’s a success anyway!” Lebow cheered. Although the numbers were a tad disparaging the idea to form a club was then received by Traum for the disabled athletes. The name was chosen by Glover, who was particularly fond of Greek mythology. Joking to an audience at an Upper East Side restaurant when giving a lecture Traum said, “I was fed up of finishing last in the races so I thought I should start a club of other disabled runners so I would not always be the last one home!”

Thus in 1983 The Achilles Track Club (ATC) was established, and its mission statement was to encourage disabled people to participate in long-distance running with the general public. Traum says, “People tell us we’re inspirational, that’s nice but we are not trying to be inspirational, it‘s a bit annoying.”

From 65 to 500-members

A modest man he must however take credit for changing thousands of peoples lives. In his book, A Victory for Humanity, he recalls how he helped take a one legged Puerto Rican man from selling grass in the spring to drug addicts in mid town Manhattan to meeting President Reagan at the White House in a post marathon celebration in November, and how he helped arrange a Trinidadian runner regain sight he had lost 15-years earlier. This is a club of Miracles. Things happen in the Achilles. By 1984 the club had grown to 65-members and counting. Today the New York chapter has over 500-members.

A general consensus that rings true is that the sight of a disabled person achieving athletic success tells the observer, “If they can do it, then what excuse have I to not do it?” When the buses ferry the marathoners over the Verazzano-Narrows on the Marathon morning to Staten Island the Sun is usually hanging at the level of the suspension bridge, and the morning’s mist is clearing off to reveal a typically Sunny New York November day. If you are lucky enough to be riding on one of the latter buses you will witness the outset of the Disabled Start; a couple of hours before the main field gets underway, the handicapped athletes are given an official ‘early‘ start. The faces of the athletes, some quadriplegics, some on crutches, others blind, yet all united with an amazing optimism and joy on their faces, brings tears to the coldest of hearts.

Blind Achilles runner

Ivonne Mosquera, a blind Achilles runner, talks about why the club means so much to her, "Achilles has allowed me to learn so much about the sport of running, and in turn, about living a healthy lifestyle. It has given me the chance to enjoy the outdoors, while running or walking, and has introduced me to so many people from such varied backgrounds. This has really given me a chance to run with people who are stronger, faster, or even more disciplined runners than I am.” You can find Mosquera in Central Park always running with a smile on her face; she contributes to the Achilles by editing their NYC magazine. She continues, “It has been an honor to have joined Achilles as I have met such wonderful people who are willing to volunteer their time and energy to run with me."
"The Achilles is a club where most of the people come in barely being able to just walk several steps, and now they are able to walk/run miles."

The story of the Achilles is of fantastic feats on frugal funds. There are a ‘hell ova’ lot of good people who donate time, and money to help others, especially in the hub of New York City. Doctors who donate plastic legs, Eye surgeons offering free treatment, and individuals moved to help only because they know they can do so. One such man who has devoted his working life magnanimously to the Achilles is the former elite marathoner Chris Stewart, a British Champion, and twice the third placed finisher in the New York City Marathon with a personal record of 2:13. Stewart travels the globe and shares stories of training with the Tamal Tigers in Sri Lanka, dodging bullets in Bosnia, and the medals he mentions are not the ones awarded to him for his outstanding athletic prowess but from the United Nations for his humanitarian works. If you have a heart that beats he will encourage you to climb a mountain.

Team Training

The sport of running is of embodied empowerment; having one less leg or the use of only one arm does not make the activity any less rewarding. Twice a week at the Gate of New York’s Central Park a large group of Achilles athletes meet for the team training, just like any other New York City athletic team. Ken Trush, who heads the operation of the New York Chapter talks, “Achilles to me is about breaking down barriers, building self-esteem and achieving goals. I have seen lives (both athletes and volunteers) significantly changed because of this organization.” The volunteers who turn up are as inspired as the athletes, helping the runners is rich reward in itself as Michael Konstalid discovered, “As a physical therapy student, I take pride in enabling people to be defined by their abilities rather than their disabilities.” In fact Michael Margulies, a professional strength trainer admits, “I am training to run a marathon, only because I want to be able to run as a guide for a blind athlete in another marathon. That‘s how inspiring I find the Achilles athletes to be.” Such luminaries as Mariel Hemingway and Candice Bergen have been Achilles volunteers, Candice still is to this day.

Pioneer records

Although Traum set many pioneer records the people he has coached and inspired have long since beaten his best times, this actually has been an inspiration for Traum, proof that the miles he pounded in the park have paid off. Dick never stops looking for further challenges, still the President of the Achilles, he is not only a marathoner but he has even ventured up to the ultras completing a 100km event in Poland. This is one of the rewards Traum has garnered from the club; stimulation for himself to try the seemingly impossible, and then achieve.

George Hirsch

“No matter how you are involved with the Achilles, I was a guide one time, it is an amazing inspiring experience for all. Truly a wonderful thing they are doing, have done."
George Hirsch added, former famous editor and publisher of Runner’s World

The Achilles prides itself as an international, nonprofit organization that provides support, training, and technical expertise to runners at all levels. If you are in New York come out to Central Park and spend an hour at one of the training sessions, see the miracles for yourself, and soak up what is truly great about our sport; that if you are willing to try, there‘s always people that will help you to succeed. That’s the community not only of the Achilles, but of Runners.

The arms of the Achilles are far reaching

There are now 40 chapters in the United States of America, and over 110 chapters on six continents, as far thrown as Norway, New Zealand, Mongolia, Dominican Republic, Russia, South Africa, Vietnam and Japan. The arms of the Achilles are far reaching; In New York City the club works in a close association with the Office of Adaptive Physical Education of the Board of Education, and with the Department of Parks and Recreation, and helps well over 2,000 disadvantaged children with disabilities train at 50 public schools. Membership to the Achilles Track Club is gratis and open to any athlete disabled or not.

Toby Tanser

To contact/join the Achilles Track Club;
Dick Traum,
42 West 38th St, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10018

http://www.achillestrackclub.org/

PS:
Toby Tanser is on the Board of Directors for both the New York Road Runners, and the Achilles Track Club. He ran the BERLIN-MARATHON in 1997, running 2:18:02.